CityLab Daily: Can Co-Living Cool Down a Hot Rental Market?

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What We’re Following

Cool it down: Can communal living cool down a hot rental market? In downtown San Jose, California, an 18-story building is set to be the biggest attempt at a co-living mega-dorm ever conceived. It’s in a city that tops the lists of highest-value housing markets and highest-income earners, with average rents reaching $2,700. The hope is that this project takes a step toward making a more affordable city, and that Millennial living preferences can help it get there.

The San Jose city council even created a whole new zoning category—“co-living”—for the development. With construction set to start this fall, it’s another example of how the Silicon Valley city’s approach to housing has been, by necessity, “try anything.” “We struggle so greatly just to get a shovel in the ground to get housing in the city,” says San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. “The fact that the developer had found an approach that could get housing built was a good enough signal to me that we should get any obstacles out of the way.” CityLab’s Sarah Holder has the story: The Largest Co-Living Building in the World Is Coming to San Jose

A monthly tax credit for low-income renters and a “baby bond” program to help first-time homebuyers are part of the presidential hopeful’s list of proposals.

Kriston Capps

Little Red Riding Cap

“If you tried to ride with the Red Caps, they would just take off and leave you. And then they’d come back and smoke a blunt on the park bench. If you somehow made it back, they’d laugh at you: ‘Who’s this guy, trying to ride with us?’”

In the 1970s, cycling groups for people of color were rare. But halfway through the decade, two New York cycling groups, the Red Caps in Brooklyn and L & M in Manhattan, came along and put predominantly black riding groups on the map. The Red Caps still meet at the entrance of Prospect Park, where they start rides that can last for 100 miles or more. The pioneering peloton, whose ranks include seasoned and upcoming Olympic cyclists, may be getting a little bit older, but their competitive trips are still fierce. The New York Times has the story: Why This Black Cycling Group Made History